O’Mara: A comprehensive strategy against heroin

I remember hearing this once, “As a parent, you’re only as happy as your saddest child.”

These words have come to mind as I’ve sat with the other members of the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction at numerous statewide public hearings we’ve held since 2014. We have heard mothers and fathers share their stories of sons and daughters they’ve lost to heroin or opioids — or who are in the midst of a nearly unbearable struggle to help a child recover from this terrible addiction.

For anyone who has attended our hearings, including forums I’ve sponsored in Chemung and Yates counties, this testimony has been the most powerful, heart-wrenching and, ultimately, important. If these parents can summon this kind of strength, then as state legislators, we have a responsibility to listen and to act.

And we are acting. The fight against heroin is well underway. Since 2014, New York has enacted numerous new state laws and significantly increased investments in programs and services.

In this year’s election in the 58th Senate District, Leslie and I have some things in common. One is that we are both parents with children — my two daughters and my son are a bit older than Leslie’s two young daughters — for whom we want nothing more than a healthy and successful future.

So let’s start with one fact: Heroin knows no boundaries. It can reach any family or any community. That’s the starting point: Everyone’s involved. This public health crisis requires a local-state-federal response like never before.

In Elmira, Ithaca, Corning, Watkins Glen, Penn Yan, Hornell — throughout the 58th District — I have heard directly from regional law enforcement officers and first responders, drug addiction counselors and treatment providers, recovering addicts and family members, social services and health professionals, educators and other experts who have shared suggestions about the range of complex challenges posed by heroin.

Local, grassroots input has been and will remain the driving force. It’s been reflected in our actions over the past several years.

The 2016-17 state budget invests nearly $200 million to strengthen programs and services — an 82 percent increase in state funding since 2011. This investment has already led to the announcement in July that Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services in Tompkins County will construct a new residential treatment facility for patients suffering from substance use disorders in the Southern Tier. It’s a critical addition for our region. But it’s just a start.

The budget was followed by a comprehensive package of new laws building on the laws we’ve enacted since 2014 — most of which arose from the work of our Senate Task Force and which I co-sponsored — to further strengthen the cornerstones of New York’s ongoing strategy: prevention, treatment, recovery and law enforcement. Please find out more about these new laws on my Senate website: omara.nysenate.gov.

We’re just at the beginning. But we believe it’s a strong start. We’ve established a bipartisan consensus to keep acting — and we know we need a response with no boundaries.

Tom O’Mara, a Republican from Big Flats, represents the 58th District in the New York State Senate.